Virology News

Study results presented today by Mark Cotton, M.D., Ph.D., of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, showed that infants could safely stop ART after 1 to 2 years and continue to fare significantly better than those infants in whom the initiation of therapy was delayed until signs of illness or a weakened immune system appeared. Importantly, very few infants who received immediate ART had significant disease progression or died after treatment was stopped.

News from our neighbours: good one, Mark C!

Picture courtesy Russell Kightley Media

While research on the lab-altered H5N1 virus that can be transmitted between mammals in laboratories is put on hold, scientists are debating how to balance biosecurity with the need for research that could help thwart a pandemic.

The issue: What biosafety containment level (BSL) should be used for the viruses?
The levels range from BSL-1 to BSL-4, which are designated in ascending order by degree of protection provided to lab personnel, the environment and the community. Biosafety levels apply to labs dealing with infectious microbes.
Currently, studies with these viruses, which were engineered to spread via respiratory droplets between ferrets, are being done at BSL-3 or higher facilities. However, Canada has already moved to institute the highest level of biosafety containment research for these viruses....

Meanwhile, farmers in Indonesia and Vietnam continue to breathe 'em in....

"We conclude that RTSV and RTBV have developed a similar, sORF-dependent shunt mechanism possibly to adapt to the host translation system and/or coordinate their life cycles. Given that sORF-dependent shunting also operates in a pararetrovirus Cauliflower mosaic virus and likely in other pararetroviruses that possess a conserved shunt configuration in their leaders it is tempting to propose that RTSV may have acquired shunt cis-elements from RTBV during their co-existence."

Fascinating: horizontal genetic element transfer among VERY dissimilar viruses sharing the same niche

Do you have it in you? Join the Flu Near You project to help track flu activity in the United States.

Citizen bioinformatics...B-)

Scientists are sharply divided over how easy it might be to make a virulent form of the bird flu virus.

Really?  Anyone who actually understands just how much training it takes to do the kind of mol biol AND virus culture AND animal experiments, thinks it would be easy for amateurs to make mutant flu viruses?  Scare mongering continues...!

The Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have published new guidelines on chikungunya, a mosquito-transmitted virus transmitted that causes fever and severe joint pain. The Guidelines for Preparedness and Response for Chikungunya Virus Introduction in the Americas aims to help countries throughout the Americas improve their ability to detect the virus and be prepared to monitor, prevent, and control the disease, should it appear.

Hundreds of people who have traveled from the Americas to Asia and Africa in the past five years have become infected with the chikungunya virus. While the virus has not spread locally in the Western Hemisphere, experts say there is a clear risk of its introduction into local mosquito populations. Local transmission could occur if mosquito populations in the United States or elsewhere in the Americas became infected with the virus and began spreading it to people in that area.

First we gave you West Nile, now chikungunya.  The Third World is spreading....

Rapper Drake struggled through a show in Texas on Friday night after falling sick with stomach flu. "The Best I Ever Had" star, who is currently on tour in the U.S., began feeling ill this week, b...

Do the Soggy Bottom rap, y'all...B-)  No respecters of persons, are viruses.

M2 protein of influenza A viruses is a tetrameric transmembrane proton channel, which has essential functions both early and late in the virus infectious cycle. Previous studies of proton transport by M2 have been limited to measurements outside the context of the virus particle. We have developed an in vitro fluorescence-based assay to monitor internal acidification of individual virions triggered to undergo membrane fusion. We show that rimantadine, an inhibitor of M2 proton conductance, blocks the acidification-dependent dissipation of fluorescence from a pH-sensitive virus-content probe. Fusion-pore formation usually follows internal acidification but does not require it. The rate of internal virion acidification increases with external proton concentration and saturates with a pKm of ~4.7. The rate of proton transport through a single, fully protonated M2 channel is approximately 100 to 400 protons per second. The saturating proton-concentration dependence and the low rate of internal virion acidification derived from authentic virions support a transporter model for the mechanism of proton transfer.

(Reuters) - Two more patients in a 10-patient segment of a mid-stage trial testing Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental hepatitis C drug GS-7977 had the virus return within four weeks of treatment, researchers...

Inovio's SynCon vaccine for head & neck, HPV-related cancers induces robust T-cell immune response in mice...

HAVANA — Cuba's top biotech teams have successfully tested a new AIDS vaccine on mice, and are ready to soon begin human testing, a leading researcher told a biotechnology conference in Havana on Monday.
"The new AIDS trial vaccine already was tested successfully (on mice) and now we are preparing a very small, tightly controlled phase one clinical trial" with HIV-positive patients who are not in the advanced stages of disease, researcher Enrique Iglesias said.

Influenza activity in the northern hemisphere increased overall but has already peaked in a few countries of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. Whereas in some regions it appears to be a mild season, particularly in the United States of America (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) in other countries activity has reached levels similar to previous years.

Image: Russell Kightley Media

A new city ordinance requiring porn actors to wear condoms during filming takes effect Monday. The Los Angeles City Council approved the ordinance in January, following several high-profile instances of porn performers becoming infected by HIV.